Shure PG52

The Shure PG 52 is really meant to just sit in one place and have broadcasters speak into it (even though it’s a kick drum mic as well) This is Shure's flagship broadcasting and public speaking mic. However, it has been widely adopted into the pro audio world as well for its unique, lively sound. It is a dynamic that connects with XLR, so no phantom power necessary. It comes with a big wind screen, which you will probably want to take off if you are using it for music to allow more of the high frequency detail to come through, but leave on for broadcasting to tone down some of the more nasty plosives. It has two frequency adjustment switches. One is a low-frequency roll-off to help deal with the proximity effect you will definitely be seeing from broadcasters, and the other a is a presence boost that will help intelligibility of speech. For music, this mic can give a very fat sound to vocals. Use this on singers with a very edgy, mid-range type sound and listen to them melt into a fat punchy sound. You will probably want to boost above 8k for lead vocals on your EQ, but everything below that will likely sound great. I also know many people who like to use this on snare drums and toms, and have gotten great results.

OVERALL OPINION

This mic picks up all the nuance and character that I want while also providing amazing ambient noise rejection. I can record in any room in my house and the sound is nearly the same in each place. And while I wouldn't call this microphone a jack of all trades, that doesn't stop me from telling you that I love this microphone! You will too.
Sonically it sounds great, ideal for fattening whatever your trying to record and with good EQ'ing, even an amateur will hear the difference! It makes a great impression, any talent walks into your studio and sees this mic and it will say a lot about you as an engineer.

The Shure PG52 is Shure's entry level kick drum microphone, and before I go any further, if you want a kick drum microphone from Shure, look to the Beta 52A. The PG52 is not bad per se, however, in a world of fantastic kick drum microphones, it cannot win against its higher end competition, because it has broken the $100 threshold and will likely not be looked at as a cheap microphone, relatively speaking.

Now, onto the main course.

The Shure PG52 is a bass drum microphone. It is a dynamic microphone and has a cardioid pickup pattern. This is typical of kick drum microphones. While it is a kick drum microphone, however, it is curious that the frequency response only rises to 13,000 Hz. (It starts at 30 Hz.) I am only mentioning this because in the other kick drum microphones do have frequency responses that extend up relatively high compared to the Shure PG52. While it does include all of the nice things that a kick drum microphone should have, something weird seems to happen to the sound of the kick drum. I will get back to that soon.

The Shure PG52 indeed has all of the required things of a drum microphone, sturdy construction, compact size, simple adjustment mechanism, and most importantly, a very high SPL tolerance.

But the PG52 is strange, because compared to its competition, it sounds positively anemic on kick. It strangely finds its place mic'ing up floor toms, and, best of all, bass cabinets. This was odd, because a lot of bassists choose to use direct input rather than mic'ing up a cabinet like a guitar player would.

OVERALL OPINION

Understand what the PG52 is for. It may be just okay on a kick drum, but on a floor tom and a bass cabinet, you can get fantastic results with it.